by Rinelle Grey
That calmed him enough to smile at Mora. “I’m fine. No need to apologise. They’re just worried about you. I mean, I’m obviously a degenerate, and you really should keep your distance. Never know what I’m up to.”
He’d meant to lighten the mood, to use humour to relieve the tension, and for a moment he’d thought it had worked. Mora had grinned when he’d said she should keep her distance, but her frown returned at his following comment.
“What are you up to?” she asked bluntly.
Crap. He should have seen that coming. He’d left himself open to that one.
“What do you mean?” Finn tried to look innocent. It probably wouldn’t work, but it would buy him time while he figured out how to respond.
She just raised an eyebrow.
Stick close to the truth. That had never failed him.
“Well, uh, I actually did know Damien was your brother,” he admitted.
Her eyes widened a little. He’d caught her attention. “How could you possibly know that?” Her words held a healthy dose of suspicion. She was probably imagining all sorts of possibilities, one of which would be the truth.
Now he just needed to steer her away from that truth and into something innocuous.
“I always look up everything I can about a new place I’m going to visit,” he admitted. “I have a bit of an anxious personality, you might have noticed. And it helps me calm down. So I did a bit of research about Dragon Island Hideaway Resort before I came. There are pictures of you and your brothers up on your social media pages. And a couple of articles about your family owning the resort. I… uh… recognised you when we first talked, and I recognised your brother when he gave me the keys.”
“Oh.” She stared at him, completely deflated.
He added a bit more detail to his story. “I didn’t want to say since people tend to think I’m snooping. It’s not that at all though. Though I have to admit, I may have chatted to him a little more than I might have otherwise when I realised he was your brother.” He gave her his best innocent smile. He was far too good at this.
For a moment, he thought she wasn’t going to buy it. She stared at him suspiciously, her eyes searching his face. Then she shook her head and gave a laugh. “Well, I’m never going to hear the end of it from my brothers.”
She returned to eating. The moment passed, the tension gone. But Finn couldn’t help feeling a little uneasiness remaining. Keeping a secret from Mora was far harder than he’d expected it to be. She was unusually perceptive.
He’d have to tread carefully.
So much for asking any questions tonight. He couldn’t risk making her suspicious again. He needed to lay low, play the long game.
Which meant he needed to play into her issues with her brothers. He could use that.
Even if he felt bad for doing it.
He reminded himself he was doing this for a reason, that the dragons posed a significant threat to humanity. And that wasn’t just his paranoia speaking. A lot of people thought so, a lot of people were taking this situation very seriously.
Finn definitely didn’t like the idea of dragons wandering around all over the place. Just the thought of it, of never knowing if someone he met was a dragon, played havoc with the anxiety he’d been feeling since his last encounter.
No, even if he liked Mora, this investigation was important. He owed it to his fellow humans to follow it through.
But that didn’t really make him feel any better.
Especially not when he wondered what she’d been doing with the dragons anyway. If she wasn’t a dragon mate, and all evidence pointed to the fact that she wasn’t, then what was her story? Were they using her somehow?
If so, he needed to find out. If they were, she could be in danger.
For some reason that thought didn’t incite his panic, even though it should have. Instead he just felt intensely protective, like he’d do anything to defend her.
Even face a dragon.
That thought almost stopped his heart, but not quite. It just made him more determined, determined enough that he said casually, “Is this going to be a problem for you?” He waved back and forth. “Us having dinner, I mean.”
To his surprise, she flashed him a grin at that. “Not at all. I love annoying my brothers. In fact, any of their attempts to warn me off you are just likely to make me more determined to keep dating you.”
Finn felt a pang of disappointment that she was only going out with him to annoy her brothers. Then he chided himself for that thought. He was only going out with her to get the information he needed to finish this investigation.
Even that fact was a little muddied.
Even if his heart did do a strange flip flop at her comment. That was probably a carryover from his earlier freak out about her possibly being in danger from a dragon. So he took a calming breath and said flippantly, “How can I help you further annoy them?”
Mora’s grin widened. “Well, let’s see. We could go for a helicopter flight tomorrow morning. My other brother, Hayden, is the pilot. That’d irritate him.”
“I’m not sure I want to irritate someone who’s flying me hundreds of feet above the ground,” Finn pointed out.
“Good point,” Mora agreed. “Um… how about breakfast then? And afterwards I’ll show you my favourite walk up the mountain?”
That didn’t sound like an attempt to annoy her brothers. That sounded like an excuse to be alone with him.
No matter how much he tried to deny it, Finn’s heart beat a little faster at the thought.
Chapter 8
Morian headed up the narrow bush path, Finn beside her, wondering which path she should take him on. Last night, when she’d suggested this activity, she’d been planning on taking him to her special spot near the waterfall, but a night’s sleep had made her wonder if that was really a good idea.
There wasn’t any real harm in it. It might be her favourite place, but it was just a waterfall. Yes, the area was technically off limits to guests, but it wasn’t like she’d be revealing any deep, dark secret about herself. He couldn’t possibly know that when she went up there alone, she swam in the pool in dragon form.
He couldn’t know that unless she told him. And she had no intention of doing that.
She’d just have to avoid going there in dragon form until after he left the island. That wouldn’t be very long, he was only booked to stay a week.
She and Finn reached the point where the path split, a large sign declaring the path to the left to be off limits to the public. Her mind made up, Morian turned down that path, past the sign.
Finn though, stopped. “Are you sure we should be going here?” he asked doubtfully.
Morian gave him a smile. “Yeah, it’s fine. My mother owns the resort, remember. And you’re with me.”
But he still hesitated. “Have you been here before? What if the area is off limits because it’s dangerous? Do you have permission?”
“Yes,” Morian reassured him. “This part is off limits so that we have some private spaces for ourselves. There’s no danger. I promise.”
Finn hesitated for a moment, staring at her.
It hadn’t occurred to her he might be the sort of person who had an aversion to breaking the rules. He hadn’t hesitated once about irritating her brother. Then again, that wasn’t really a rule, was it? Her brothers had no authority over her.
Apparently this was different.
And it gave her a little pang of sadness. This was just a holiday fling. Yes, she was enjoying spending time with him, enjoying the feeling of connection she felt with him, but she knew now wasn’t the time to get involved, despite her brothers’ actions.
But she couldn’t deny, in the back of her mind, she’d wondered how he would react if she told him the truth. Could he handle the fact that she was a dragon?
Could she trust him to keep her secrets?
But that hope faded a little when she recalled last night's dinner. Keeping her secret would be breaking a
whole lot of rules. She’d seen the news articles calling for anyone who had any information about the dragons to come forward. She knew the dragon clan had been asked about the presence of dragons anywhere else.
Technically the clan hadn’t lied. They hadn’t known about her father and his family when they’d told the political leaders the two clans were the only dragons in Australia. They just hadn’t changed their answer when they’d found out her family owned the resort.
Not that Morian, Damrian, and Hayrian were a threat to humans. None of the dragons were. They just wanted to live in peace like the humans. Well, Rian clan anyway. She didn’t know about Trima clan, but from what she’d heard, they weren’t too peaceful.
Either way, she couldn’t risk their secret being revealed until things were sorted out.
She’d have to keep her distance. She could enjoy Finn’s company, but she’d never be able to even consider telling him the truth. She might have laughed at Damrian when he’d told her now wasn’t a good time for mating, but she never expected it to be a real issue.
Maybe she should just take Finn on one of the other walks. They were all pretty. He’d never know the difference, never know what he’d missed by not going on this one. And she’d be able to maintain her distance and not let him any further into her heart.
But then he surprised her. He took one more look at the sign, then deliberately stepped around it. “I trust you,” he said, his voice teasing, “but if we fall off an unmarked cliff, I’m going to blame you.”
Morian stared at him, disconcerted again. “We can go another way if you’re worried.”
“Nah.” He smiled and took her hand. “I’m just teasing. I can’t wait to see what you want to show me. I bet it’s spectacular.”
Some of the sadness in her heart lifted at his words. Maybe he was just cautious. Maybe he just liked to know what he was getting into before he jumped. She wasn’t going to tell him the truth, but it eased some of her fears to believe he might be able to handle it if she did.
Today though, all she would be showing him was the waterfall. Even so, Morian couldn’t wait to see the look on his face when he saw it. His hand was warm in hers, building the connection between them. Despite her reservations, Morian couldn’t bear to push him away.
So instead, she nodded. “You’re going to love it.”
And they walked up the path together.
Morian focused her magic ahead of them, temporarily lifting the life dragon protections she’d woven around this path. Even with the sign, the occasional person who wasn’t as conscientious as Finn tried to come this way. She could never let herself shift if there was any risk of her being seen, so Morian had made sure no human would come this way.
It wasn’t much, just some minor uneasiness to wash over any unsuspecting travellers. It turned most people back. She had more magic up ahead for those who persisted, but she’d lift that too when they got there. They still had quite a distance to go before they made it there.
As they walked on up the path, Morian relaxed a little. Being out here was calm, peaceful. Unlike a lot of people, Finn didn’t try to talk constantly throughout the walk, and it wasn’t because he was too out of breath to hold a conversation either. No, he’d kept up with her with no trouble, had even pointed out birds or wildflowers when he saw them, and responded to the things she’d pointed out. And in between, they’d travelled in comfortable silence.
Morian glanced sideways at him, flustered to find him looking at her. It was another thing he’d done several times on this walk, almost as though he knew she was about to glance his way.
“We’re almost there,” she said to mask her discomfort.
Finn nodded.
Morian glanced at him again, but this time he was looking ahead. So she turned back too. Her final protection was just up ahead, and she needed to lift it before the magically engineered feelings overwhelmed him.
This protection was more serious. Oh, it started out as uneasiness, but the deeper into it you walked, the heavier the concern grew until it hit outright fear and panic. Morian had never known anyone to get past that protection, making her feel quite safe in her hiding place.
Finn didn’t sense a thing as they walked through though. Morian made sure of that. And after they’d passed through, Morian restored the shield. She intended to make sure they weren’t interrupted. A small tweak would give her brothers quite a warning as well if they came this way.
“I can hear it. Is that a waterfall?” Finn asked, his face lighting up.
Morian grinned. “It is, yes. Come on.” She tugged on his hand, pulling him along the path as it wound its way past the trees. The sound of rushing water grew louder with every step they took until it was almost a roar. They rounded the final corner, and there it was in front of them.
Morian wasn’t looking at the waterfall though. She could picture it in her mind as the water fell nearly twenty metres down a steep cliff into the rocky pool below.
Instead she watched Finn’s face.
His reaction was almost as breathtaking as the waterfall. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped. He stared at it for a long moment before turning to her. “Looks like the risk was worth it.”
“Risk?” Morian’s voice faltered. He couldn’t possibly know… could he?
“I didn’t fall off any cliffs, and the view is spectacular.” Finn wasn’t looking at the waterfall as he spoke though. He was staring at her, his eyes shining,
Morian felt her heart beat quicken and her skin flush. She knew that look. She’d seen it on many of the newlyweds who’d honeymooned at the resort. She’d just never experienced it herself.
He gave her a lopsided grin. “From earlier, when I was joking about the sign.”
“Uh, yeah. Sure. Definitely worth it,” Morian said distractedly.
She could sense it. He was feeling the pull as strongly as she was, and he didn’t even have the recognition of what was happening between them that she sensed with her life dragon magic. He didn’t even attempt to fight it, just took a step closer to her, as though an invisible string was drawing them together.
His hand went to her waist, and he pulled her closer.
Morian didn’t try to resist it either. She didn’t want to. If the feeling was this strong, then there couldn’t be anything wrong with it, could there? All her doubts, all the strange emotions she’d felt from him since they’d met, tried to rush to the front of her mind, but Morian refused to let them.
She wanted to feel this, to see where it went. She owed herself that much.
Whatever else Finn was, he attracted her like no one else ever had.
So she took a step closer to him, enjoying the feel of his hand in the middle of her back and letting her own arms slide around his waist, under his shirt. She let out her breath in a whoosh as he lifted his other hand to cradle her cheek.
He stared into her eyes for a long moment, asking a wordless question, waiting, giving her time to pull back.
But Morian had no intention of pulling back. She lifted her face to his, her lips parting in anticipation.
Finn smiled as he lowered his mouth to hers. He was gentle at first, and Morian groaned at his feather light touch. It was almost unbearable, the teasing, the barest brushing of his lips across hers.
She wanted more. Much more. A hunger rose in her, bathing her body in an intense heat that threatened to overwhelm her and make her throw caution to the wind. Or the waterfall. The spray softly misted over them, but it didn’t cool her heat any. The water’s roar in the background hummed through her body, making her bold.
She flicked her tongue across his bottom lip, delighting in the taste—Finn mixed with waterfall spray.
It was Finn’s turn to groan, and he crushed his lips to hers, devouring her mouth in exactly the way she’d wanted him to. It satisfied the hunger in her, and at the same time it awoke another, deeper need. A yearning she’d never felt until that moment.
She wanted to be closer to him, connected
on a level far deeper than anything she’d experienced before. It was as if, until this moment, a part of her had been missing. And now that part of her was here, standing in her favourite spot and kissing her as though his life depended on it.
As if both their lives depended on it.
She wasn’t sure how long they stood like that, but by the time Finn pulled back to stare at her breathlessly, both of them were damp from the spray.
“So, just how private is this place?” Finn asked, his voice low. One hand caressed her hip, the other was still tangled in her hair.
Was he suggesting…?
Morian’s body heated at the thought of mating with Finn. That was what she wanted, what she craved.
It wasn’t really a risk. She wasn’t planning on a permanent mating, just a once off to see if it lived up to expectations. There was no risk in that. She’d have to sleep with him three times before they created a permanent bond, and she could hold back. She was a life dragon, after all. Her willpower was unmatched.
“No one else ever comes here,” Morian said softly.
Finn’s eyebrow rose at that. “Hmm, no one, eh?”
Morian was about to reply, but whatever she was going to say was washed away when he kissed her again, his lips a mix of sexual heat and cool spray from the waterfall.
Then he gave a grin and pulled back. “Sounds perfect for skinny dipping then. Last one in… will be last.”
Then he turned and sprinted towards the edge of the pool.
Morian watched him go, laughing, a bittersweet mix of frustration and tenderness bubbling in her chest.
She wasn’t quite sure how to take him, but it sure was a fun ride finding out.
Chapter 9
As Finn dropped his clothes on a stone near the waters edge and surged into the cool pool at the base of the waterfall, he didn’t dare look back to see if Mora was following him. He wanted to. Desperately. He definitely wanted to see her naked body.
